II – Shada

A remake of the unfinished Tom Baker story that was never broadcast due to a strike at the BBC. The 8th Doctor is reunited with his old friends Romana and K9 as he answers a summons from Professor Chronotis, a retired Time Lord now living in a Cambridge college.

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Styre
on May 7, 2016 at 9:28 PM

SHADA

It seemed as though every Doctor Who outlet attempted a story of some kind for the program’s fortieth anniversary in 2003, from BBC Books’ Deadly Reunion to Big Finish’s own Zagreus. BBCi, producers of Death Comes to Time and Real Time, decided to get in on the act as well, having been approached by Big Finish about a remake of the only unfinished Doctor Who story: Douglas Adams’ Shada. As Tom Baker proved unwilling to participate, Paul McGann took over the lead role, with Lalla Ward returning to the cast, and the result was a very solid if unspectactular remake of one of Doctor Who’s most famous lost treasures.

It’s difficult to review Shada on its face simply because of the existing material from Season 17. Any review will inevitably provoke comparisons between the two, mostly centering around the performances of the different actors and the modifications made to the script by Gary Russell. However, in terms of Adams’ original script, there are a few criticisms that can be made: as with many six-episode stories, it’s padded throughout, and the plot starts to approach incomprehensibility towards the end. However, there are simply so many ideas packed into the script and so many brilliant set pieces that Adams makes up for some of the dramatic deficiencies. It’s the worst of his three Doctor Who scripts but it’s still insane enough to hold the interest of the audience throughout.

As for the modifications made by Gary Russell for the purposes of audio, they’re well-written for the most part. I dislike the opening scene, which seems intended not to justify the inclusion of McGann and an older Ward but rather to canonize the half-finished nature of the original Shada and the scenes excised from it in The Five Doctors. As such, it’s forced and unnecessary. However, many of the other modifications are excellent: rarely does Russell adapt to audio with obvious expositionary dialogue. His streamlining of the ending to include a more logical role for the Krargs is sensible, but it’s difficult to say whether or not a plot change that isn’t necessary for the format should be written by another author.

Unfortunately, the biggest problem with Shada lies with Paul McGann in the central role. McGann does the best he possibly can with the material, approaching it with unmatched enthusiasm and effort. The problem, though, is that McGann is not Tom Baker, the actor for whom the script was written. Baker has a unique talent for humor: he interprets lines in odd ways, giving them an alien, humorous quality that simply has not been matched by any of his colleagues in the role. McGann does not have this ability, talented as he may be, and as a result much of the humor falls flat. The “…and twenty-thirdly” scene, for example, doesn’t work at all coming from McGann. This isn’t his fault, of course, but it’s an unfortunate side effect of remaking a script written for somebody else.

Lalla Ward, on the other hand, returns to the script and sounds as though she never left. The script is modified to recognize the changes in the character, but the essential humor is left alone and Ward nails it, adding just the right degree of maturity for the sake of believability. Indeed, as the only returning actor to the story, she was the only one with prior familiarity with the material — and her command of the role must have made the job easier for her fellow actors.

Returning to the role of K9 is John Leeson — but, ironically enough, it was David Brierley who voiced K9 in Shada. Leeson accomplishes two things with his performance: first, he proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’s the better of the two voice actors; second, he sounds as though he’s never left the role. All of the other actors that have returned to Doctor Who have, to one degree or another, displayed the effects of age in their voices; Leeson sounds absolutely identical to his performances from 25 years prior. K9 is every inch as technical, narrow-minded, and smarmy as ever and it’s a delight to hear him again.

The supporting cast assembled by director Nicholas Pegg is easily the most acclaimed in BF history, and it mostly lives up to its reputation. James Fox gives a much different spin on the role of Professor Chronotis, and though I found it over the top at the beginning, his performance after his resurrection is sublime. Andrew Sachs reinterprets Skagra as a ranting megalomaniac but also adds some fascinating color: a lack of understanding of Earth cultural terminology, for example. Sean Biggerstaff gives Chris Parsons something of a more heroic turn than that seen on television, while here we actually get to see Clare Keightley do something, and Susannah Harker lends credence to what had been a relatively unknown character. Melvyn Hayes puts a nice spin on Wilkin as well, and Hannah Gordon is suitably sultry as the voice of Skagra’s Ship. Rounding things out, Barnaby Edwards and Stuart Crossman give their best unintelligible growls as Krargs.

Gareth Jenkins has the responsibility of recreating for audio certain scenes which were already seen on television, and he blends old and new sound effects with ease to create a natural sound environment. Russell Stone’s score obviously tries to imitate the Dudley Simpson scores of the time and succeeds admirably — it’s nice to hear a real score for Shada for once. And Nicholas Pegg uses the extra time for production to perfection: despite some of the aforementioned script issues, this is a very polished production which has clearly had the benefit of more intensive direction and additional retakes. A fine job of production as always, something which was necessary for the play’s broader audience.

Shada marks the only remake of a Doctor Who story ever attempted by Big Finish, and all the positives and negatives of such an attempt show through. Though some aspects of the script jar with the audio medium and the recasted lead actor, this remains for the most part a fine production and an excellent tribute to both a lost story and a late, lamented author. Not perfect, but arguably the best that could be hoped for under the circumstances.

When the Doctor receives a message from his old friend, Professor Chronotis (James Fox), a retired Time Lord living on Earth as a Cambridge professor, he remembers something long forgotten. Four lifetimes ago, he had visited Cambridge with Romana (Lalla Ward) and K-9 (John Leeson) in response to a summons from the Professor – a summons that went unfulfilled when they were snatched out of time and space. Now it’s time to finish old business, sending all three of them “back to Cambridge, 1979.”

Chronotis has called them to retrieve an artifact he brought back from Gallifrey. A book that isn’t a book, but which has powers that could be devastating in the wrong hands. Trouble is, Chronotis has inadverdantly lent the book out to a student. And the wrong hands are already searching for it, in the form of Skagra (Andrew Sachs), a brilliant but unstable scientist who plots to use the book as a key. The Doctor doesn’t know what Skagra plans to do with it when he has it. But he knows enough to realize that the consequences might spell the end of the universe as he knows it!

“Beware the sphere…”

CHARACTERS

The Doctor: Paul McGann steps into Tom Baker’s shoes in this remake (or should that be second attempt? For purposes of the review, I’ll refer to it as a remake) of the half-finished, strike-aborted 1979 story. I know opinions on this are divided, but mine is that the shoes fit perfectly. McGann has a laid-back, deadpan line delivery that suits Douglas Adams’ dialogue. He has a knack of delivering lines about how taking the universe makes no sense because “it’s useless as a piece of real estate because, by definition, there’s nobody to sell it to,” all while sounding perfectly conversational… which makes such lines much funnier than if he was trying to “sell” them. McGann is particularly good opposite Andrew Sachs’ Skagra, his calm demeanor the perfect foil to his increasingly agitated and excitable foe.

Romana: Lalla Ward returns to the role of Romana, the Doctor’s former companion and now President of Gallifrey. That Ward has no problem settling back into the role is no surprise – she had already reprised it multiple times by the time this was recorded. The main body of the story is almost exactly what Douglas Adams wrote for Season 17 (with some material apparently pilfered from earlier drafts), so the relationship between Romana and the Doctor quickly settles into being the traditional one. This works in the story’s favor to the extent that Ward actually plays quite well opposite McGann, and seems far more relaxed here than in most of her BF outings, where she has to be “stern” and “Presidential.” Within the story’s continuity, though, there is no sense of Romana’s position having changed after the opening prologue. She defers constantly to the Doctor, allows the Doctor to chide her in one scene… which makes it all the more jarring when the story remembers to nod at her being Gallifrey’s President once or twice thereafter.

K-9: The robot dog is quite amusingly utilized by Adams’ scripts. The invisible spaceship is particularly enjoyable, as the Doctor and Romana bump straight into it while K-9 makes no warning because he assumes that they can see it. The story takes the mickey out of K-9 multiple times. Repeated replies of “Insufficient data” are played on to good effect, as is his overly-literal response to a cry of, “Blast it!” John Leeson is terrific, capturing the bits of character that made K-9 work when he probably shouldn’t have.

Villain of the Week: Andrew Sachs is Skagra, a brilliant – and stability-challenged – scientist who has devised a plan for universal domination using a big ball, an invisible spaceship, and a bunch of silicon-and-lava derived thugs. My recollection of the 1979 version is that Christopher Neame’s Skagra came across as rather weak and wooden (a surprise, given how good Neame is generally). This is one area in which this new version definitely works better. Sachs is terrific as Skagra, sneering out his every line delivery. He’s an over-the-top villain and knows it, but he never goes so far over to break my suspension of disbelief. He has just enough fun with the part to be enjoyable, but reigns it in before it crosses the line into camp. He also gets many of the story’s best lines and exchanges, particularly opposite the Doctor and Romana in the story’s latter half. I loved the Doctor’s final punishment of Skagra, which is far more satisfying than simply killing him would have been.

Befuddled Time Lord Guest Star of the Week: Though I think Sachs’ Skagra works far better than Neame’s did, I’m afraid that James Fox’s Chronotis just isn’t as effective as Denis Carey’s was in the 1979 version. This is easier to judge (since most of Carey’s scenes were actually filmed), and rather disappointing, given what a good actor James Fox is. Unfortunately, though almost certainly a better actor than Carey, Fox… just isn’t as good at comedy as Carey was. He doesn’t seem to have the knock of playing Chronotis’ befuddlement in the kind of straight-faced and off-hand manner that Carey had. Fox seems to be trying to sell certain lines a bit too hard, and drains some of the humor out in the process. He also delivers some of the dialogue in the early episodes a touch too rapidly, when certain lines (“It could be green!”) would be funnier if allowed a second or two to sink in. He’s better in the later episodes, when Chronotis is a bit less scattered and more focused, but this is very far from Fox’s best work.

THOUGHTS

Shada is, of course, famous as Season 17’s half-finished season finale, what should have been the epic valedictory bow of the Graham Williams era, and particularly of the Graham Williams/Douglas Adams season. Depending on who you’re listening to, this story would either have been a sparkling epic of wit and high concept that would have redeemed that controversial season, or would have been a lugubrious mess that would have been a nail in the coffin lid of the season’s reputation. It is worth noting that Douglas Adams later professed to have been relieved that the story was cancelled, as he wrote it in a hurry when the story he really wanted to write was rejected as being too silly.

My own opinion falls somewhere between the two poles. I’m rather fond of what was shot of the 1979 Shada, as presented on home video, and I think it would have been the second-best story of a season that I’m admittedly not very fond of. On the other hand, it is not exactly Adams’ best work as writer, and it’s not hard to see why he was dissatisfied with the scripts. There’s much that is funny in Shada, there are a handful of wonderfully clever moments, and the villain’s plot is both ingenious and unlike anything Doctor Who had done prior to that point. It’s lesser Douglas Adams, but it’s still a pretty good story.

Unfortunately, it is very slow and structurally rather messy. It is equally true of both versions that the first episode could be described by the phrase, “Nothing happens,” and that the second episode is only a bit better. The story itself doesn’t seem to start until Part Three, and doesn’t really take off until Part Four. Had it been completed in 1979, I doubt it would have been regarded as any kind of classic.

These problems hamper the 2003 version. A clever prologue by Gary Russell provides a “grabber” that helps ease listeners over Adams’ slow opening, and puts the story in context as having first “happened” (1979), then “un-happened” (The Five Doctors), so that it is reasonable for it to “happen again” for the 8th Doctor. But since there are only very tiny tweaks to Douglas Adams’ actual script (which was quite audio-friendly as it was), there is no real sense of urgency in the 8th Doctor and Romana’s visit, nor a sense of Romana having any greater standing than she would have in the 1979 variant. There is even one point at which Romana refers to this visit as a “social call,” something which is flatly contradicted by the new prologue!

The audio version is very well-produced, and Nicholas Pegg has gathered together a strong cast. Most of the story’s failings lie in the original script. It’s too slow to start (and was in 1979). It’s a bit structurally messy, with too many side trips and it taking far too long to get the Doctor and Skagra into direct conflict (equally true in 1979). About half of the cliffhangers are weak at best (and always were).

However, the story’s best cliffhanger – “Dead men don’t need oxygen” – is destroyed in this version. This is triply disappointing, because: (1) It’s a very audio-friendly cliffhanger; (2) This was one of the scenes never shot for the original version; and (3) Since Nicholas Pegg oversells the cliffhanger by repeating the line over and over again before bringing in the credits, that means that only is a good cliffhanger bungled, but that there is no good version of what should have been an all-time classic cliffhanger.

With that exception, Pegg’s direction is generally well-judged. The soundscape feels convincing for both Cambridge and the outer space settings, and I never had any trouble following the action even in the more visual sequences. The score is effective, the performances are good (even James Fox is generally pretty good, just not up to the level of his predecessor in the part). The story takes too long to get going, but when it does finally kick into gear, there’s plenty of Douglas Adams wit and loopiness to enjoy.